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Job, with a difference, not IT related...

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Hi everyone

Had a job interview the other day for a position with a company who is part of an umbrella for a bigger company, its a direct sales and marketing company.

it wasnt IT related but i just went along to see whats what, anyway, i got down to the final 5 (or 10, was told 2 different things) and was invited back today for an evaluation day where i basically shadowed someone for the day.

basically it was horrible, walking round streets from 12 till 9pm (this would be everyday, 6 days a week)

although everyone was really cool, almost like they were on happy pills? looking back it was more like a religious cult, there were no handshakes, it was all Hi-Fives

anyway, to cut a long story short, the company says with enough effort i could retire in 10 years and be on a 6 figure salary within 7

but upon doing a little research on them online it appears no one has a good word to say about them or any of the umbrella companies and is basically a massive MLM.

im stuck for decisions, i can start on thursday if i wish as i have been offered the job but the other half of me wants to tell them to stick their pyramid scheme where the sun dont shine

the only thing that makes me want to do it is the apparent money and development oppertunities, but of course this could all be pie in the sky

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Yeah...these kind of pyramid schemes are all over the place. They promise the sun, the moon, and the stars but only a few at the very top ever get rich. One of the more "popular" outfits here in the US is called Priamerica.

My former next door neighbor, who is normally a pretty level headed guy, tried to get me involved. I went to the intro meeting, sized it up for what it was pretty quickly, and politely got out. I run across one of these scams every once in awhile. My advice to you is that if it sounds too good to be true...it probably is.

Cheers Trip, im pretty certain i wont be walking in there again, its just so bad that the people there are all brainwashed, the guy who was training me was telling me how he will be promoted this year and then he gets to start his own office and build his own team and he will be on about £50k a year

But from what ive found on the net most people get sacked for 'fraud' when they get close to it

I had a similar interview several years back. It was one of these door to door sales companies selling electricity. Everything was commission based, so if you dont make the sale, you dont get paid. Personally I didnt really like the tactics that some of them used to get a sale.

At the end of the day I was offered a job, but when I asked for a day to think about it, they refused saying that they were going to offer the position to someone that day. If I didnt take it, they would just call someone else. So I took it, thought about it, then phoned them and told them to stick it.

The deadgiveaway with these jobs is that they refuse to tell you anything about the job and what it entails until you turn up.

The theory they operate on is sound: Direct marketing can net sales from 1 in 10. So if each person markets 100 houses, they will conceiveably sell 10 units a day. thats much higher than tv, radio or newspaper, but its because of the sly underhanded tactics they use (telling old grannies that they could be paying too much for their electricity unless they switch)

Yeah - like turning up at my Father In Law's house and trying to hard sell him an electricity changeover when I'm sitting in the front room listening to the bullshit... Closest I've ever come to ruining someone's shite without actually resorting to physical violence. I followed him down the street shouting abuse at him, basically trying to goad him into swinging a punch at me so I could kick the shite out of him.

Glad you've made the right decision Shaggy - you would have ended up on the lowest rung of society's ladder (below salesmen, lawyers, estate agaents and even IT recruiters!)

I went for a job like this years ago down in Ex'ter. Spent the day with a bunch of em walking the streets talking the talk etc. Apart from tiring me out due to the footwork needed to do this i found i coulnd't do it. I couldn't tell the bold face lies needed to con somone into believeing that they needed to switch gas suppliers just because they had a 2 or 5 on thier gas bill (which apparently everyone has!). The boss told me that they'd spend a week doing the gas sales then they'd swop to doing electricity for a week then to TV licence discounts or something else. It was all slick with all the correct ID needed for each person to reperesnt each company dependent on the week and what they were pushing, all pre made etc weeks in advance!!
They reckoned the best could easily make £100k a year or more doing this. The only way i could see to make this was make around 10 sales a day everyday for the year!! and to get the 10 sales you needed to knock on at least 50 to 100 doors a day.
The only impresive thing about all this was how the guys doing it seemed to be on the edge of a happy histeria over the sales and targets they made! It was liek watching a bunch of brainwashed monkeys what with all teh smiles, back patting joking (about the con of some old lady) and the slogans such as make a sale a day, reach for the high etc and to top it all off they had the right gear, smart suits, clip boards mobiles everything to make it look liek some big outfit!
I'm sorry but if you need to lie and con people to make money then your probably the worst type of person in the world.
I knw they have tightened the regs regarding this sort of selling but theres still plenty of these types of companies out there and they should all be shot. Its as bad as the telesales that do cold calling or recorded phone messages trying to sell you power, double glazing etc and dont take no for an answer!

I've signed my landline and mobile up to The Telephone Preference Scheme. Its a government opt-out for telesales calls. They companies can get fined 10K for calling you to sell you something.

Course, you always get one or two who call you to tell you you've won something, or to complete a market survey - which they then try to use to sell you something else after, but for the most part, I havent had a sales call since i signed up over a year ago.

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